1918 YEARS

On 26 July 1918, V. I. Lenin received Gordon and on the same day
wrote a letter to C. Zetkin in reply to the letter from Clara Zetkin to Lenin
brought by Gordon on 27 June 1918 (see V. I. Lenin. Complete Collected Works,
vol. 50, pp. 127 — 128).

NOTE
TO THE COMMANDANT OF THE KREMLIN
P. D.
MALKOV
25. VII. 1918

Comrade Malkov!

Give Comrade Gorbunov the opportunity to inspect the Great
Nikolaevsky Palace and other Kremlin premises¹.

Lenin

¹ The inspection of Kremlin premises was connected with the placement of government
institutions after the transfer from Petrograd. On this matter V. I. Lenin addressed the
Commandant of the Kremlin more than once in the first months of 1918, after 12 March.

TELEGRAM TO V. P. NOGIN

[1 August 1918]
Saratov
To Nogin

More than two workers are being sent today. Strain every effort to put
things in order. Regarding literature I shall make arrangements.
Lenin

¹ Lenin's telegram was a reply to a telegram from V. P. Nogin of 1 August 1918 from
Saratov reporting on the grave situation in the city and province in connection with the
Czechoslovak uprising, kulak revolts, poor organizational and propaganda work among the
population, especially the peasantry, the necessity of sending from the Center one or two
workers for party work who know the newspaper trade, and the need to send Pravda,
Izvestiia, Bednotà and newspapers in Tatar and other local languages.
² V. P. Nogin — Deputy Commissar of Labor, member of the Presidium of the Supreme
Council of the National Economy.

LENIN COLLECTION

NOTE TO A. D. TSIURUPA

[3 August 1918]
To Tsiurupa

They say that 1) Sverdlov's brother² undertakes to deliver to Moscow
in 7 days tens of thousands of poods of potatoes (at a price below the usual
Moscow rate) and that formalism of the Commissariat of Food is preventing
this. 2) that representatives of the Soviets are asking, in order to combat
hunger, permission to bring grain, with strict observance of all the rules
and plans of the Commissariat of Food, and that formalism, etc.

¹ This correspondence with A. D. Tsiurupa took place during a session of the Council of
People's Commissars on 3 August 1918 in connection with the discussion of draft decrees
developed by the Commissariat of Food in accordance with V. I. Lenin's theses on drawing
workers' organizations into grain procurement.
In his replies to Lenin, Tsiurupa wrote that the Commissariat of Food does not regulate
potato procurement and that formalism cannot have a place here, and on the question of
grain transport and procurement, he proposes giving independence to the Soviets of the
starving provinces, which all food supply officials agree with.
² V. M. Sverdlov in 1918 — commissar of the Operational Department of the People's
Commissariat of Railways.

TELEGRAM TO THE TULA EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION

11. VIII. 1918
Tula
To the Extraordinary Commission
Copy to Comrade of Labor Diuraynen¹ for the workers

Send immediately a detailed report on the reasons for your arrest of
Kislyakov. If it must be secret, send it by special messenger.
You were obliged yourselves, without waiting for my request, to send
me an explanation as soon as you learned of the protest from the province
executive committee and of the workers' complaints. Telegraph about
execution.
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin

¹ A clerical error; it concerns P. P. Piurniannen.

1917 (DECEMBER) — 1918 YEARS

¹ Lenin's inquiry was prompted by telegrams from the Tula province executive committee
and workers of the "Socialist" mechanical plant protesting against the unlawful decision of
the Tula Extraordinary Commission to arrest E. N. Kislyakov, the director of the province
section of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, who became the victim of slander
by bourgeois elements. Secretary of the Labor Department of factory committees P. P.
Piurniannen telegraphed to V. I. Lenin on 13 August 1918 that E. N. Kislyakov had not been
arrested, that he, together with the director of the Labor Department Arsenyev, was being
sent to Moscow with a detailed report to V. I. Lenin on matters of the Tula Supreme Council
of the National Economy and to clarify his case.

LETTER TO FRITZ PLATTEN

14. VIII. 1918

To Comrade Fritz Platten

Dear Comrade Platten!

Of course it would be very good if you came to us again. They say
that the Swiss atmosphere has a bad influence on you (this atmosphere
is too petty bourgeois, too "calm," too "friendly") — I permit myself to
hope that our atmosphere can have a different influence on you.

Goodbye
Your Lenin

P.S. All counterrevolutionary forces have gathered against us. The
kulak uprising is raging. But I hope and am confident that we shall
crush them.

Published according to the text of the journal "Schweizerische Zeitschrift
für Geschichte" 1968, No. 1, translation from German.
Published in Russian for the first time.

¹ The letter was sent by the first convenient opportunity together with a letter to Ya. A.
Berzin (see V. I. Lenin. Complete Collected Works, vol. 50, p. 150).